How BIG is your voice?

In my last blog I asked the question “Do you have a voice”? In this one I ask a related question “How BIG is your voice?”

Have you ever had a situation where you’ve heard someone say something, or maybe you read something in a book, a newspaper, a blog, or an inspirational quote, and it inspired you to take action? Even if you didn’t take action, you probably thought about it for a moment or two. Maybe what you read or heard was so meaningful to you that it changed your life, maybe only for a few days or weeks, or maybe it changed your life forever.

Kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, mayors, company leaders, teachers and many others use their voice to inspire their commonwealth, their countries, their cities, their companies, and their students. For governing leaders, what they say and how they say it has the ability to bring entire nations together, especially in times of crisis. For company leaders, their voice sets direction for their entire company. Teachers set the groundwork for our children’s knowledge which will guide them their entire lives. Those are pretty powerful voices. Admittedly, that’s a big part of their role so you may expect them to have a powerful voice, but they are powerful voices nonetheless.

I personally don’t think that we really understand the power of our voice, be it spoken or written. I’ve written in another blog about events of synchronicity where someone might overhear a comment and know that they’ve heard the same comment several times in the past few weeks so they stop and take notice. The speaker of the comment doesn’t even know that the person overheard them, and yet the comment had an impact on that bystander. A powerful voice?

I’ve also read a story about a mother with a full-blown migraine yelling at her six-year-old daughter to stop singing because she “can’t stand it.” The daughter doesn’t know that the mother meant she couldn’t stand it at the moment and thinks her mother simply hates her singing. In her present state the mother doesn’t realize her assertion came out so strongly, and when she recovers she barely remembers her outburst. So the daughter stops singing… forever! Well, that’s a pretty powerful voice too.

Several times of late I’ve heard people say that they don’t like how things are going on in society, in their community, or in the world, and that they want “to change the world”, “to make a difference”. Some people hear this comment and think the person is foolhardy. Some people who have the thought instantly think of themselves as too small to make a difference.

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

My belief is that anything that has ever been accomplished started with a thought that was shared and it grew into something. Once the conversation starts and enough people believe in it, anything can happen. My understanding is that the recent uprisings in the Middle East were largely fueled and organized by ordinary citizens’ use of social media like twitter and FaceBook. Were those citizens too small to make a difference? How big was their voice?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead

Of course you could sit back and do nothing because somebody else will probably do it anyway. You might recognize the four people in this story; your kids have probably told you stories about the same people.

An important job had to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

So maybe your voice changes one person, an innocent bystander. Maybe it changes your circle of friends. Maybe it changes your company. Maybe it changes an entire community. But you know what, my belief is that “we’re all in this together” and if you change one person, even if it’s a change to yourself, you indeed have changed the world. And for those of you that think you just might be able to make a BIG difference, this one is for you:

Ken Jaques describes himself as a Health Care Evolutionary, Community Builder, and Speaker. True healing begins when we treat root causes instead of just masking symptoms. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2008, Ken has experienced many facets of the health care system. As “the only patient who ever lost their hair on this low of a dosage of chemotherapy” – as spoken by his rheumatologist – Ken has been on an amazing journal of self-discovery, a journey of true healing. In his blog, Ken shares stories of how his beliefs have changed over the past few years, and how they are still changing. Is it possible that our bodies can heal themselves? Do we really have to live without hope after we receive a chronic illness diagnosis? These are the types of questions that Ken encourages people to ask themselves as they embark on their own physical or emotional healing journey.

Ken is creating a platform to connect People, Patients, Practitioners, Partners and Promoters, enabling a collaborative effort to help shift the focus on health from I-llness to We-llness. Check out the pilot at www.myHealthyCommunity.ca.

What a great piece, Ken! A truly important message–we forget the ripple effect of what we say. We forget that our word is our wand (as the great Florence Scovel-Shinn said). Great reminder!!! MY VOICE IS BIG! (well, i’m working on it, anyway!)

Oh,k how very true, Ken. The voices we hear during our lifetime influence us beyond measure. As so wrote about the migraine-riddened mother, I could relate to the little girl. But now I know what was happening with my own mother that the fence has mended.
A post to vial my own today.

I definitely agree with you, Ken. Moreover, it is not only what we say, but also what we do — every little act of ours — that can make a difference, set an example, prompt an action. We may be islands, but we stand in the same ocean of life.